Business and Industry Conference (Buffalo Chapter Satellite)

Beth van Bladel, CPA, is a Director & Outsourced CFO with BST Consulting Group, a division of BST & Co. CPAs, LLP, where she provides financial, management, and accounting advisory services to support mission-driven organizations. She specializes in translating complex financial concepts into clear, actionable insights and collaborating to solve problems that lead to measurable, positive outcomes. Leveraging her Six Sigma Green Belt (CSSGB), she designs efficient processes and uses financial systems and automation to support growing organizations.

Coaching and developing her clients, team members, and NextGen CPAs is central to Beth’s work and brings her tremendous fulfillment.

Beth is honored to be recognized on the Forbes 2026 America’s Best-In-State CPAslist, a milestone that reflects her lifelong commitment to the CPA profession. She is currently serving a three-year term on the AICPA Council. Previously, she served on the Private Company Council, advising the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) on private company matters. She is also a proud member of the New York State Society of CPAs and a recipient of both the Distinguished Service Award and the Outstanding CPA in Industry Award.

Beyond her professional work, Beth is a volunteer patient advocate and founder of Capital Region Patient Advocacy, where she teaches healthcare advocacy and navigation skills to the Capital Region community.

In her free time, Beth can be found on a yoga mat or discovering backroads on her Can-Am Spyder.

Gregory J. Altman currently serves as the Vice President of Finance and Operations at Nardin Academy, Buffalo, NY and as Treasurer/Secretary for American Coradius International, LLC, Amherst, NY. Prior to this role, Mr. Altman served as the Director of Finance and Operations at Health Sciences Charter School, Buffalo, NY and as Chief Financial Officer at Zone Oil & Gas LLC and Somerset Production Company, LLC, and as controller for Somerset Capital Partners, all affiliated companies in the investment and oil and gas industries. Prior to becoming affiliated with the Somerset companies, Mr. Altman worked for an independent oil and gas exploration and production company, a real estate syndicator with public and private partnerships, and in public accounting for ten years. Former affiliations include serving on the finance and audit committee for The Olmsted Conservancy in Buffalo, past-President for the Western New York Kidney Foundation, and the annual chairperson for the Kids Escaping Drugs dinner gala, Buffalo, NY.

Mr. Altman is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants. Mr. Altman earned his bachelor's degree from New York University and graduated from the State University of New York at Buffalo's graduate tax certificate program.

Tim focuses his practice in the state and local tax area. His work primarily involves New York State and New York City tax litigation and controversy. Over the past 25 years, he has handled more than 3,000 personal income tax, sales tax, corporate tax, or other New York State and City tax audits, and over 100 cases in New York’s Division of Tax Appeals. Tim is also a member of the Board of Directors of Hodgson Russ.

Tim leads the firm’s Tax Residency Practice and he is one of the leading practitioners in this area of the law. He has handled some of the most high-profile residency cases in New York, including a significant win in the Gaied case, one of the first New York residency cases to ever reach New York’s highest court. He is often quoted by media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Bloomberg, and Forbes, on residency and other state tax issues. Under his direction, the Tax Residency Practice authored What to Expect in a Residency Audit, a detailed guide to residency rules and audits in New York and other states. And over the past 25 years, he has guided literally thousands of taxpayers moving from high-tax states to low-tax states and successfully defended them in state residency audits.

As the “Noonan” in “Noonan's Notes,” a monthly column in Tax Notes State, Tim is a nationally recognized author and speaker on state tax issues. He co-authored the CCH Residency and Allocation Audit Handbook and Contesting New York State Tax Assessment- Fourth Edition, published by the New York State Bar Association. In addition, Tim has served as a contributing author or editor for several other tax publications and treatises, including the American Bar Association's Sales and Use Tax Deskbook, the "New York Sales Tax Guide" published by practicallaw.com, the corporate apportionment chapter in Thomson Reuters’ Checkpoint Analyst, the New York chapter of LexisNexis’s Practice Insights, and the New York Tax Litigation chapter in Thomson Reuters’ Commercial Litigation in New York State Courts treatise. He has also written more than 400 articles in state and local tax publications around the country over the past two decades, and he runs the award-winning Noonan's Notes Blog, where he and his colleagues offer regular commentary on developments in the world of New York and multistate tax law.

Tim also has extensive experience on New York City corporate and entity tax matters, and handled a significant number of residency and sales tax issues in other states, including work with many national and international clients on multistate compliance or voluntary disclosures. He has also appeared before the Connecticut Supreme Court and the Michigan Court of Appeals in litigated matters and is admitted to practice law in Connecticut.

• "Hood uniquely combines three vital traits: He sees the future of the profession clearly; he discovers or creates supremely practical ways to move the profession toward that future; and he generates tremendous enthusiasm for the move in everyone he meets.”
• Accounting Today Magazine Tom is one of the most influential leaders in the Accounting Profession. He has been named the Second Most Influential Person in Accounting since 2011 by Accounting Today Magazine (His fifteenth year on the Top 100). He was also one of the first five thought leaders inducted into the Accounting Hall of Fame (2015) by CPA Practice Advisor. Linked-in recruited Tom as one of their Top 100 Influencers and he was named to the Top 25 Influencers in Learning by HR Examiner. He is known for his prolific digital footprint and now has over 780,000 followers on Linked-in, Twitter and other social accounts. Tom is on a mission to help CPAs, Finance and Accounting Professionals thrive in these times of exponential change. He firmly believes that what got us here, won’t get us there as the Profession faces unprecedented changes and opportunities. Tom's recognition and awards reflect his leadership in helping CPAs be more #FutureReady through his work at the Maryland Association of CPAs and the Business Learning Institute (BLI), a center for the development of leadership, strategic thinking, and collaboration skills for CPAs. BLI has a catalog of over 600 programs and 30 ‘top gun’ instructors who provide state of the art learning and curriculum for the Top 500 CPA Firms, Fortune 500 corporations, non-profits, State CPA Societies and even internationally. He is a graduate of Loyola College (B.A. in Accounting) and has a Master’s in Finance (Real Estate) from Johns Hopkins University. He also obtained the Certified Information Technology Professional (CITP) certification and the Certified Global Management Accountant (CGMA) certification from the AICPA.

Eric Morris is Portfolio Manager and Staff Economist at Alesco Advisors, an ESL Company, where he helps businesses, families, and nonprofit institutions with custom investment solutions and advice. His responsibilities include managing client portfolios based on evidence-based investment strategy and supporting decision-makers with practical interpretation of complex market developments. He also sits on Alesco’s Investment Committee. He is often called upon to share his insights about capital markets and the economy with broad audiences through speaking engagements, media appearances, and print publications.

Prior to joining Alesco, Eric shared his expertise with students as instructor of economics, history, and education at the secondary, undergraduate, and graduate levels. Earlier in his career he spent several years as a researcher with the Center for Governmental Research, a think-tank and consulting firm. He holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in economics from Syracuse University, as well as an Ed.D. from the University of Rochester. Eric and his wife live in Brighton, NY with their two sons.

Nate Tunningley, CISA - Information Security Analyst | Mengel Metzger Barr & Co. LLP

Nate Tunningley is a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), accredited by ISACA, with five years of experience in IT compliance and security governance. He specializes in governance, risk, and compliance — helping organizations build the frameworks and controls needed to operate securely and meet regulatory requirements. At MMB+CO, Nate leads client advisory engagements, vCISO services, and compliance assessments across a range of industries including K-12 education and municipal government.

Cory Bonura Sr. Systems Engineer & Penetration Tester | Mengel Metzger Barr & Co. LLP

With more than 15 years of experience in IT, Cory Bonura brings a depth of technical expertise spanning systems engineering, penetration testing, and enterprise infrastructure. He has served as both an IT Director and IT Consultant across the medical and private sectors, giving him a grounded, real-world perspective on how organizations of all sizes manage security risk. At MMB+CO, Cory leads technical implementation and hands-on security assessments for clients.

• Background Bella Hoed de Beche is a supervisor within RSM’s Finance Automation Consulting practice. She is one of the top implementation specialists and is highly skilled in project management. Prior to joining RSM, Bella attended the University of Florida. She graduated with a degree in Mathematics in 2019 and has been working at RSM ever since. Bella also attained her Masters in Finance at the University of Miami while working full time at RSM. Bella has over 4 years of experience implementing BlackLine and is a highly valued member of the team. She has implemented the BlackLine solution for several dozen clients and has experience working with nearly all BlackLine modules. Relevant Experience & Education o Financial Close Automation
• Enhanced the visibility of month-end close through the utilization of account reconciliations in BlackLine. Performed account reconciliation discovery thus led to increased process controls, segregation of duties, reduced close timing, transaction matching, and data source automation through FTP with integrated BlackLine software to further reduce the dependency on manual processes. o Completed the certification for Kyriba, a treasury management system o Over four years experience working on BlackLine implementations, and specialized in Modern Accounting Playbook (MAP) implementations o Master of Science in Finance, University of Miami o Bachelor of Art, Mathematics, University of Florida